Jet washing apparatus



Oct. 14, 1947.- ALF. M cFAR-LAND 4 7 JET WASHING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 4. 1944 nrro/wvfx flushing high; pressure liquid cutting action.

-to provide a deviceoapable of source a relatively low pressure fluid supply.

Patented Oct. 14, 1947 UN I TED TSYTAT'ES .PATE N T O F F I C E 2,428,91 7 JETWASHING APPARATUS Artie McFarland, Houston,

Tex., assignor, "by

i corporation of ,Texas Application'september 4, 1944, Serial No. 552,623

- 14 Claims.

This inventionrelates to jet washing apparatus and has for its general object the provision of such an apparatus which-will provide an eflieient and thorough high pressure jet washing action.

High pressure fluid jets have in the; past been employed for cutting orloosening dirt scale or the like from a surface to be cleansed. 'Such jets, howeveryhave for the most part been of such a nature that the volume delivered through them'was very small, and wholly insuflicient to flush off the loosened material oncev the jet'had acted to loosen it. Use of the high pressure jet as a fiushingjet' is time-consuming and is highly ineificient not only because of the timefrequiredbut because of thehigh pressure at whichthe small volume of-fluidf delivered to the work.

vIt is, therefore, an object-of the invention which will provide an apparatus which will result in delivering to the work simultaneously a high pressure small volume jet capable of loosening and cutting dirt from a surface to be cleansed, and a relatively low pressure large volume stream capable of flushing oil the loosened material-in ahighly eflicient manner.

Itis further an object of this invention to make use of ahydraulicpump arrangement adapted to furnish a relatively small volume of liquid at very high pressure and to at the same time discharge at low pressure a relatively great volume of the liquid which has been used as a power liquid to provide, the high pressure liquid supply, so as to employ the high-pressure liquid supply for cutting and loosening dirt or the like from a surface to be cleansed and making use of the" relatively low pressure waste'power liquid for away the substances loosened by the Furthermore, it is an object of this invention producinga high pressure-stream of fluid utilizing as a power liquid or gaseous -Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in panying drawings in which is set forth by way of illustration and example one embodiment of this invention.

connection with the accom- In-the drawing the singlevfigure illustrates diagrammatically and mostly in longitudinal cross-section an apparatus constructed in accordance with this invention.

Referring more in detail to the; drawing, the

, apparatus illustrated maybe roughly divided into designated by the numeral l,

three parts comprising indicated generally by the composite nozzle indicated meral 3.

It is intended that this invention shall utilize apower fluid which may be compressed air or gas supplied through the'conduit t, or a suitable liquid such as water under relatively low pressure througha supply conduit 5. The liquid which is adapted ultimately to form the high pressure cutting jet may be taken from the supply conduit5 through a suitable three-way valve 6 when the same is inthe position illustrated in the drawing, and thence through the conduit 3' to the main valve 5 or it may be taken from any other source such as a'soapy solution through a conduit-8, and thence through the valve 6 and the conduit 1. For this latter purpose the valve 6 would be turned a quarter turn to place the conduits 1 and 8 in communication with each other.

The power fluid received through either of the conduits 4, or 5 will be placed in communication with the'main valve through a suitable three way operating valve land a conduit ill, and with the pilot valve which will presently be described, through the valve 9 and a conduit H.

The slide valve elements 52 and l-3, located within the main control valve, are adapted to shift from one extreme position'to the other to control the supply of power fluid-and the supply of fluid to be raised to high pressure by the hydraulic pump 2. These valve elements I2 and it are mounted upon a rod is which is slidable longitudinally in either direction through the housing of main control valve I. One of the slidevalves I2 is mountedin a valve chamber 15 within such housing and the other slide valve element 53 is mounted Within a second valve chamber it in this housing. The rod it extends through the end wall of the valve chamber l5 and is attached to a diaphragm I! so that when pressure is applied to one side of the diaphragm the two slide valves will be moved to one extreme slide valves will treme positions.

When these slide valves are in the positions illustrated in the drawing,-the power fluid will the left as illustrated in the drawing. At the same time, the liquid which is to be used for the high pressure liquid supply will pass through the channel 23 in the slide v'alve l2 and be conveyed by the conduit 24 to the left hand end of the cylinder 25. As the pistons 21 and 22 are forced toward the left by the power fluid, as above described, the liquid which is to be used as the high pressure fluid supply will be allowed to fill the space within the chamber 25 to the right of the piston 26. Because of the relatively large cross section of the plunger 21, which is interposed between the pistons 2| and 25, as compared with that of the rod 28 which connects the pistons 2| and 22, the volume of liquid drawn into the cylinder 25 to the right of the piston 25 will be much smaller than the volume of power liquid forced into the cylinders I9 and 29 to the right of the pistons 2| and 22.

While the assembly within the hydraulic pump 2 is thus being moved toward the left, liquid from within the cylinder E9 to the left of the piston 2! will be forced outwardly through the conduit 29 and valve chamber 65 to the conduit 32 and thence to the centrally located high pressure port or nozzle 3| within the composite nozzle 3. Because of the relatively small volume of this liquid as compared with the volume of power liquid employed and of the relatively large effective areas of the right hand surfaces of the pistons 2| and 22 as compared with the effective area of the left hand surface of the piston 2!, this liquid will be discharged through the nozzle 3| under very high pressure, thus forming a cutting or loosening jet of relatively small volume. At the same time, used power fluid will be discharged from the left hand portions of the cylinders 25) and 25 through conduits 32 and 33, through the channel 34 in the slide valve element l3, and through the conduits 35 and 35 to a relatively large annular nozzle 31 surrounding the jetting nozzle 3!. The relatively high pressure low volume strong cutting jet from the nozzle 3! will be directed to substantially the same area as the relatively low pressure large volume flushing stream from the nozzle 31. The result will be that dirt and other substances may be readily loosened by the high pressure low volume jet while such substances may be simultaneously flushed away by the relatively low pressure large volume stream from the nozzle 31.

When the assembly within the hydraulic pump 2 reaches a, point adjacent to the left hand extremities of its travel the end of the valve rod 38 will be contacted by the bottom 39 of the bore 40 in the plunger 21, thus shifting this valve rod and the pilot slide valve element 4! toward the left. Before such shifting action, power fluid from the conduit H will enter the chamber Q2 of this pilot valve and pass from this chamber through the conduit 43 to the right hand side of the diaphragm ll, thus holding the slide valve elements l2 and 13 in the position illustrated in the drawing. At the same time the space to the left of the diaphragm ll will be vented to the low pressure stream leaving the apparatus, through the conduit 44, the channel 45 of the pilot slide valve element ll and the conduit 46 which empties into the conduit 36.

When the pilot valve element 4! is shifted to the left as above mentioned, the power fluid from the conduit II will then be conducted through the valve chamber 62 and the conduit M to the left hand surface of the diaphragm ll. ihe area to the right of this diaphragm will simultaneously be vented to the low pressure discharge from the apparatus, through the conduit 43, the channel 45 and the conduit 2E. All this will result in the shifting of the valve elements l2 and I3 to their extreme right hand positions. With the valve elements 52 and iii in these new positions, the power fluid will be conducted through the valve chamber It and the conduits 32 and 33 to those portions of the cylinders 25 and 28 which are to the left of the pistons 26 and 22, respectively. At the same time the spaces within the cylinders 19 and 2%) to the right of the pistons 2| and 22. respectively, will be vented through the conduit I8, the valve channel 36 and the conduits 35 and 36 to the low pressure nozzle 31. This will cause the assembly within the hydraulic pump 2 to move toward the right. During this movement high pressure fluid will be forced from that portion of the cylinder 25 which is to the right of the piston 22, through the conduit 25 and the valve chamber to the conduit 3!] and the high pressure nozzle 33. A new supply of fluid which is due to form the high pressure fluid supply will simultaneously be drawn in through the conduit 1, the channel 23 in the valve element l2 and the conduit 28 into the space within the cylinder E9 to the left of the piston 2|.

When the piston assembly within the pump 2 reaches the position adjacent to the right hand extremity of its travel the head ll on the end of the valve rod 38 will come in contact with the closure 48 carried by the piston 2e, and will shift the pilot valve element 41 back to the position shown in the drawing, whereupon the cycle of operation of the device will be repeated.

I-Iaving described my invention, I claim:

1. In a washing apparatus, a fluid pressure operated pump adapted to receive a liquid at relatively low pressure and discharge it at a relatively high pressure, a first discharge connection leading from the high pressure part of said pump, a second discharge ing from a low pressure power fluid discharge of said pump in combination with a composite nozzle having a relatively small opening connected to said first discharge connection for the purpose of discharging a strong cutting jet of high pressure liquid, and an adjacent relatively large nozzle opening directed toward substantially the same area as said high pressure nozzle opening and connected to said second discharge connection from said pump to discharge a low pressure annular flushing stream around said high pressure jet.

2. In a washing apparatus, a fluid pressure operated pump including means for simultaneously providing a first fluid supply at relatively high pressure and small volume and a second fluid supply at relatively low pressure and great volume, said pump including means whereby the fluid medium for operating the pump at low pressure is passed on to serve as said second fluid supply and a composite nozzle comprising a relatively small discharge port connected to said high pressure fluid supply and a relatively large discharge port connected to said low pressure fluid supply, whereby said first mentioned port will be caused to discharge a strong cutting stream of relatively small volume, and said second mentioned port will be caused to discharge a relatively weak flushing stream of relatively large volume to wash away the materials loosened by the cutting stream.

3. In a washing apparatus, means for simulconnection leadtaneously providing a fluid supply at relatively high pressure and small volume and another fluid supply at relatively low pressure and great volume, and a composite nozzle comprising a central relatively small discharge port connected to said high pressure fluid supply and a relatively large annular discharge port connected to said low pressure fluid supply and surrounding said central port and extending somewhat beyond the end of said small port, both of said ports being arranged so as to discharge fluid in substantially the same direction, whereby said central port will be caused to discharge a strong cutting stream of relatively small volume, and said annular port will be caused to discharge a relatively weak flushing stream of relatively large volume toward substantially the same area to wash away the materials loosened by the cutting stream.

4. In a washing apparatus, a fluid pressure operated pump including means for simultaneously providing a first fluid supply at relatively high pressure and small volume and a second fluid supply at relatively low pressure and great volume, said pump including means whereby the fluid medium for operating the pump at loW pressure is passed on to serve as said second fluid supply, and a composite nozzle comprising a relatively small discharge port connected to REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,911,808 Collins, Jr May 30, 1933 1,734,580 Hippenmeyer Nov. 5, 1929 2,320,964 Yates June 1, 1943 870,317 Rappleye Nov. 5, 1907 2,207,758 Rehse July 16, 1940 1,702,585 Bell Feb. 19, 1929 1,849,945 Mobley et al Mar. 15, 1932 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 315,446 Great Britain July 12, 1929 

